Word Prompt – HATZALAH – Rivka Schwartz

In recent years, my work as a high school administrator has expanded beyond the confines of the classroom and the school day to engage more broadly with research about what helps young people flourish: to have healthier outcomes, make better choices, and assume the values of the adults around them. (Side note: it's fascinating that there are entire bodies of research about this that haven't necessarily made their way into the knowledge base of our institutions.) One of the most important things for bonding young people to the adults around them, and thus to take on their values, is for those young people to feel that they are respected and needed, meaningful contributors to the enterprise of which they are a part.

Which brings me to Hatzalah. (Fun fact: different neighborhoods spell it differently.) While it was initially intended to save lives that would have been lost by a then-dysfunctional New York City EMS, it has had an important secondary impact of affording a different path – not Torah scholarship, and not wealth – for men to be recognized as valued and essential contributors to their communities.

The amudei hatavech of Hatzalah are respected and honored within their communities, looked up to with gratitude and admiration. I think about the path that Hatzalah created for so many men to contribute and to be recognized for their contributions, and how important that was for their relationship to the Jewish community. And I wonder how we can find, cultivate, and create similar opportunities for other men, and women, in our communities.